Stimson invests $50M in mill

Andrew Miller, the chief executive officer of Stimson Lumber Company, said Thursday that the wood products company will be investing $50 million into a new, high-speed sawmill line at its facility in Forest Grove, Ore.

The investment at the 95-year-old sawmill marks a significant upgrade and commitment to future operations at the facility and increased potential for private timber owners seeking new market opportunities for smaller-dimension timber, Miller said in a press release.

Starting later this year, Stimson will begin preparing the Forest Grove mill for a 350-foot-long HewSaw line made by Veisto-Oy based in Finland. Miller said he expects the new sawline will be operational in early 2026 and the existing line will continue operating with no lapse in production.

“We are excited about the investment in this new technology for multiple reasons,” Miller said. “On one hand, we are making a commitment to long-term operations at Stimson’s oldest mill site and the economic and workforce impacts the mill brings to the community.”

Stimson has sawmills in St. Maries and Priest River, and is closing one in Plummer.

The Priest River mill employs about 100 people and produces 135 million feet annually. 

The St. Maries mill produces 90 million feet annually and employs about 60 people.  

Stimson acquired the Priest River mill in 2000, and the St. Maries mill in 2008. In both cases, there had been a mill on the site for several decades beforehand.

The St. Maries mill is surrounded by Stimson timberlands, industrial and privately owned timberlands. It processes a wide range of log diameters and species to produce premium studs for retail markets.

The Priest River mill converts a wide range of log diameters and species into premium studs for retail markets.

At its peak, the Plummer lumber mill employed 90 people. In the last few years, that number dropped to about 22 and its operations are winding down. The closure was announced earlier this year.

“The supply of timber that was available with that mill has been declining and reached the point where being able to operate the mill on a steady basis was becoming challenging,” Miller previously told The Press.

He said that, combined with some key employees retiring and a tough sales pitch for recruiting new ones, led to the decision to shutter the mill.

The mill site is currently leased from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and was taken over from Plummer Forest Operations in 2006.

Stimson said the investment it's making in the Forest Grove mill would not have worked at the Plummer mill.

"A key element of our decision at Forest Grove is the adjacent company timberland that will supply a solid foundation for the new mill operation," according to a company statement.

A Stimson spokesman also said the Plummer mill has a smaller version of the line being installed in Forest Grove. It processed logs 3 to 9 inches.  

"There was an insufficient economic supply of size timber," the company said. "Adding capability to mill larger timber would just put Stimson in fierce competition for logs with our competitors."

When operational, the new sawline will process logs between 4-inch and 16-inches in diameter at a rate of 70, 8-foot blocks per minute, making it the highest speed sawline in North America, Miller said. 

The mill, with its current sawline and 300 million board-feet of kiln capacity, produces about 100 million feet of 2-by-4 and 2-by-6 studs annually, but Miller anticipates production will triple when the new mill is fully operational, according to the release.

The current mill employs 90 people, but Miller anticipates the new technology will ultimately require fewer employees once operational.

“The new mill will be one of the most efficient and productive sawmills in North America, which is Stimson’s goal with the investment,” Miller says.

The investment in the HewSaw technology also leverages Stimson’s 175,000 acres of adjacent timberlands, which will account for more than half of the mill’s timber supply, the release said.